Adrian: Baldur's Gate

Getting Brage back to Nashkel was no trouble.

"My poor family..." he sobbed into his hands.

"Come Brage," said the priest. "Even lost souls can be saved."

"But I don't want to be saved, I want to pay for my crimes!"

"Death is not the price you should pay."

Brage collapsed to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably.

Adrian looked at him uneasily. Some vague flicker passed through him. "If the priest has the right of it, this cursed sword of yours was to blame." he said. The entire party boggled at him.

"Yes, that's right," the priest said. "You were not in control of your actions."

"That doesn't make them any less dead, does it?!?"

"No, but their souls can rest in peace, at least."

Adrian moved over to the priest as Brage continue to weep.

"Our agreement..." he began.

"Oh, of course...here's 500 gold."

"I'll take the sword too."

"Surely you don't wish to wield it?"

"Nay, but if you can't destroy it, then I might as well make some more money off it."

"What was that milk-soppishness back there for?" Edwin demanded as Adrian sold the sword to the town merchant. "One would think that girl Imoen was still amongst us."

"Leave Imoen be, I won't warn you again. And it was a simple statement of fact; he wasn't in control of his own actions."

"But why should you care?" asked Viconia.

Adrian sighed. "I was paid to bring him back alive; it would be failure of a sort if he killed himself. Now enough musing."

"We go after the Bandits now?" Xzar asked eagerly.

"We follow their lead a little, at least," Adrian agreed. "Those letters mentioned a contact man in Beregost by the name of Tranzig. Staying in Feldepost Inn."

"But we canna get back in there," Kagain protested. "No after ye killed that fool Marl."

"But Edwin can. He wasn't with us then."

Edwin drew himself up to his full height. "Do you presume to command me?"

"You agreed to serve me for a year," Adrian reminded him. "And surely you are eager to defeat this Tranzig in magical combat?"

"Hmmmm," Edwin nodded thoughtfully.

As they left town, Adrian frowned in thought. He could hear a whispering in the back of his mind.

It was the Armor, he realized. It still served the shade of this Kozah being. Whatever it had been. A storm god of old or something like; no doubt Talos had killed it. No matter, his will was the stronger, but it would pay to be on his guard.

And something about dead gods...it disturbed him, though he couldn't say why.